Optical image rotating device

ABSTRACT

In the environment of a photocomposition machine normally projecting images across a column, with the lines &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;leaded&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; after each line is composed, this modification provides an image rotation to permit larger letters in longer text than could be obtained in the normal column width. The image rotation is distortion-free by reason of a set of two roof mirrors in an angular relationship to provide the exact desired degree of rotation, which is normally 90*. An enlarging lens, or curved mirror surface, is used to produce enlargment.

United States Patent [1 1 Rosenstein et al.

[451 Sept. 17, 1974 OPTICAL IMAGE ROTATING DEVICE [75] Inventors:William Rosenstein, South Orange;

Thomas Allan Booth, Flanders, both of NJ.

[73] Assignee: Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio[22] Filed: Dec. 19, 1973 211 Appl. No.: 425,955

[52] US. Cl. 354/5, 354/l5 [51] Int. Cl B4lb 21/18 [58] Field of Search95/1, 4.5, 12; 354/5, 15

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,323,414 6/1967 Ritchie,95/12 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 4/1954 Great Britain 95/4.5

Primary Examiner-John M. Horan Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Ray S. Pyle [57] ABSTRACT In the environment of a photocomposition machine normallyprojecting images across a column, with the lines leaded after each lineis composed, this modification provides an image rotation to permitlarger letters in longer text than could be obtained in the normalcolumn width.

The image rotation is distortion-free by reason of a set of two roofmirrors in an angular relationship to provide the exact desired degreeof rotation, which is normally 90.

An enlarging lens, or curved mirror surface, is used to produceenlargment.

4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures OPTICAL IMAGE ROTATING DEVICE BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION Photocomposition is accomplished by many, and variedmachines, one of the, well-known and popular types is manufactured andsold .by-the VariTyper Division, Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation,and is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,705. The U.S. patent shows theconcept of using a rotating disc as a font of characters with a lightsource to project through the transparency characters. A lens systemfocuses the-projected character on to a plain surfaceover which aphotographic film or a photosensitive paper sheettraverses in row-by-rowincrements.

As the patent teaches, the controller of the photocomposing machineselects a particular character. When the character isin alignmentwiththe lens system 1 the light is flashed to project the character. Theprojection of the character is controlled to step along a line laterallyofthe photosensitive sheet character by characterto compose words andspaces. The web, or sheet, is later developed photographically and cut.and pasted into composition for camera-ready lithographic masters.

In order tocompose bold headings, such as used for newspaper headlinesor bold type in advertising, it is generallynecessary to have acapability of greater linelength composition than is available in thelimited space provided by most photocomposing machines. In order toemploy the capabilities of a tape controlled photocomposing machine forthe longer length bold type headings, it would be necessary to provide asecond set of optics, photoflash mechanism, and related equipment toexpose through the disc at a 90 offset location from that positionnormally in use in photocomposition; i.e., the character is flashed whenit reaches the top position in order to-be projected in an erectreadable attitude. lf projected 90 early, thecharacter would be lyinghorizontal to the usual composition base line. But, if such letters wereprojected oneper line in a series, then a row would be produced along asheet rather than across the sheet. However, suchadditional equipment ina conventional photocomposition machine will add excessive cost for thelimited use possible.

SUMMARY A conventional photocomposing machine is convertible at theoperator'sdiscretion from a limited line lens composerintext form toanunlimited length single-line composition device, limited only bythelength of photosensitive sheet,materialcapacity of the machine magazme.

DESCRlPTlON OF THE DRAWINGS FlG. V1 is a schematic illustration oftheprinciples involved in a conventional photocomposing machine with theimage rotation device inserted in the optical 7 system according to thisinvention.

' FIG. 2 is a top plan view ofthe image rotating device in the preparedembodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the image rotating device showing theangular rotation of the two sets of roof mirrors of the device.

FIG. 4 is a front view of one roof mirror.

FIG. 5 is a top view of a single roof mirror, and

FIG. 6 is a section taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT composition machine to convertthat machine tempo-' rarily into a rapidly operating bold text headlinecopy producer with very little cost or time delay.

The principles of a computer controlled photocomposition machine arequite well-known and show in various patents. In FIG. I only theessentials necessary to understand the present invention areillustrated. A disc 10 carries a circular path of font characters. InFIG. I only one character is illustrated because such photocompositiondiscs are old and well-known. The only commercially available disc 10 isa photographic transparency but it is feasible to provide a font ofimagegenerating source form on an opaque carrier and then to project lightenergy in a pattern from the form in light and shadow representing animage printed on the face of that form. This is the opaque projectorprinciple.

ln FlG/l, a schematic representation of a control means is indicated bythe reference characters 12A and .128 shown connected to the font disc10 and to a magazine take-up spool l4.-The control system represented by12A and '12B will include the computer, the program of the computer,drive motors and other associated apparatus known to the photocomposingart.

Therefore, whether a photo transparency as recommended, or anopaquesource, a font of image generating source form is employed, withmeans to select one image source form of the font, and'to move the imagesource form into a projection station and then project light energy in apattern from the form in light and shadow representing the image. Alight source 16 is illustrated in position to illuminate the alphabetletter A in-FlG. lfrom the transparency l0.

Alens 18 is a schematic representation of a lens system having anoptical axis aligned with the projection station and focused to producean image. The image may be visually detected by placing a screen at thepoint of focus.

The lens system includes the normally controlled focusing devices whichwill being the image into proper focus. The space between the lens 18and the point of focusmay be referred to as the image space of theoptical system.

A magazine 20 is a source of photosensitive sheet material. The take-upmeans 14 and the magazine 20 work together to direct photosensitivesheet material 22 in a planar path therebetween, and present such sheetmaterial to the lens image. The control systems 12A and 12B providemeans to step the material along from magazine to take-up in leadersteps of operator selected size.

The controls 12A and 12B operate the lens optical system and themagazine for projecting selected images in a proportional spacing alongthe horizontal row of the sheet material for a selected number ofcharacters and thereafter operate the stepping of the sheet material ina leader step. Thus a row of text material is composed in the normalform usually associated with newspaper and magazine reading.

When the operator desires to make bold inserts, headings, or advertisingdisplays, this invention provides for insertion of an image rotatingmeans referred to generally by the reference character in FIG. 1. Theimage rotating device 25 is insertable in the image space of the opticalsystem on the axis of the system for rotation of the image away from avertical position. The intent generally will be to rotate the image afull 90 as illustrated in FIG. 1 whereby the control means may then beset to project one only as the selected number of characters in a rowand then step the magazine to produce a single column of charactersprojected in a path aligned with the sheet material movement path.

The use of the image rotating device 25 is preferably operatorcontrolled in order that the machine may be used in conventional textcomposition or in headline producing mode at will in order to make themachine available for the extended usage described.

The preferred image rotating means is a set of two roof mirrors as shownin the balance of the drawings from FIG. 2 through FIG. 6. lt is to beunderstood that although a description of a roof mirror set is used, theembodiment includes and embodies the principle of prism members insteadof roof mirrors. Those skilled in optics art will be aware of thesimilarity of uses, and recognize the preference for mirrors rather thanprisms.

The physical construction of the roof mirrors is shown best in FIGS. 4through 6. As shown in FIG. 4, a roof mirror module 29 consists of aframe 30 which holds and presents a pair of mirrors 31 and 32 in a 90relationship.

In FIG. 3 two such roofmirror modules 29 and 33 are shown mounted upon aholding bracket 35.

The completed roof mirror modules 29 and 33 are arranged on the bracket35 such that the axis planes of each ofthe roof mirrors are made to forman angle with each other. The axis plane of a roof mirror is that planewhich is mutually perpendicular to each of the plane mirrors whichcomprise the roof.

By placing the roof modules on the bracket 35 such that their axesplanes will form an angle with the horizontal of 45 each, then the imagewhich is projected at mirror 31 of module 29 and reflected to mirror 33of module 29 will be rotated 45, and projected to the mirrors of theroof of module 33 where it is again rotated a further 45 to result in atotal rotation of 90 as depicted in FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 illustrates the system'as using lens 18. The focal length of lens18 must be matched to the longer optical path by reason of the foldingof the path through the rotation modules. When the rotation feature isnot in use, a shorter focal length lens is substituted for lens 18.

The image rotator which consists of four flat mirrors does notcontribute to enlargement of the image. It only rotates the image. Theenlargement is a function of the lens in use.

Therefore, in order to obtain bold inserts, headings, etc., threecriteria need to be satisfied. One, the rotating device needs to beinserted. Two, the appropriate display lens 18 needs to be substitutedfor the text lens. Three, this replacement lens 18 must accomodate theextra path length which is introduced by the rotating device.

It is possible, however, to accomplish all three of these criteria withone device. That is, if one of the four flat mirrors in the rotatingdevice is replaced with an appropriate convex mirror, the additionofthis negative optical power would compensate for the additional pathlength and add some magnification. Or, an appropriate negative lens maybe inserted between modules 29 and 33.

These modifications are not illustrated because such structure iswell-known to the skilled optical artisan.

What is claimed is:

l. A combination photocomposing machine for composing either columns oftext or bold heading:

a font of image generating source forms, means to select oneimage sourceform of said font, move the image source form into a projection station,and then project light energy in a pattern from said form in light andshadow representing said image;

a lens optical system having an optical axis aligned with saidprojection station, said system focused to produce an image;

a magazine for photosensitive sheet material, a takeup means, a guide todirect said sheet material in a planar path therebetween, said guidepresenting sheet material to said lens image, and means to step suchsheet material along from magazine to takeup in leader steps;

a control means operating said lens optical system and magazine forprojecting selected images in proportional spacing along a horizontalrow of said sheet material for a selected number of characters andthereafter operating the means which steps the sheet material in aleader step;

the improvement in image projection control comprising:

two sets of roof mirror modules serving as an image rotating means inthe image space of the optical system on said axis for rotation of saidimage away from a vertical position, and means for adjusting the lensfocal length to accommodate said rotating means,

whereby said control means may be set to project one only as saidselected number of characters in a row and produce a single column ofcharacters projected in a path aligned with such sheet material movementpath, with said characters readable along a direction at an angle to thenormal horizontal row.

2. The improvement in image projection control as defined in claim 1,each roof mirror module arranged such that the axis planes of themodules intersect at an angle, and the image rotation resultant is twicethat angle.

3. The improvement in image projection control as defined in claim 1,wherein the image rotating means comprises two sets of roof mirrormodules, at least one duce a focusing and size changing function.

4. The improvement in image projection control as resultant is twicethat angle, at least one said module defined in claim 1, wherein theimage rotating means comprises two sets of roof mirror modules, eachroof mirror module arranged such that the axis planes of the modulesintersect at an angle, and the image rotation 5 including a convexmirror for focusing and size chang-

1. A combination photocomposing machine for composing either columns oftext or bold heading: a font of image generating source forms, means toselect one image source form of said font, move the image source forminto a projection station, and then project light energy in a patternfrom said form in light and shadow representing said image; a lensoptical system having an optical axis aligned with said projectionstation, said system focused to produce an image; a magazine forphotosensitive sheet material, a take-up means, a guide to direct saidsheet material in a planar path therebetween, said guide presentingsheet material to said lens image, and means to step such sheet materialalong from magazine to take-up in leader steps; a control meansoperating said lens optical system and magazine for projecting selectedimages in proportional spacing along a horizontal row of said sheetmaterial for a selected number of characters and thereafter operatingthe means which steps the sheet material in a leader step; theimprovement in image projection control comprising: two sets of roofmirror modules serving as an image rotating means in the image space ofthe optical system on said axis for rotation of said image away from avertical position, and means for adjusting the lens focal length toaccommodate said rotating means, whereby said control means may be setto project one only as said selected number of characters in a row andproduce a single column of characters projected in a path aligned withsuch sheet material movement path, with said characters readable along adirection at an angle to the normal horizontal row.
 2. The improvementin image projection control as defined in claim 1, each roof mirrormodule arranged such that the axis planes of the modules intersect at anangle, and the image rotation resultant is twice that angle.
 3. Theimprovement in image projection control as defined in claim 1, whereinthe image rotating means comprises two sets of roof mirror modules, atleast one mirror of one module is other than a flat surface to produce afocusing and size changing function.
 4. The improvement in imageprojection control as defined in claim 1, wherein the image rotatingmeans comprises two sets of roof mirror modules, each roof mirror modulearranged such that the axis planes of the modules intersect at an angle,and the image rotation resultant is twice that angle, at least one saidmodule including a convex mirror for focusing and size changing.